Survival of the Fittest
by Collen DeWitt
Summary: Chapter3 and a recap added for those of you who are confused...When Michaela decides to try and climb Pike's Peak agian, she brings Colleen, Katrina, and Sarah, with her, leaving Andrew, Sully, Matthew, and Brian to fend for themselves.
1. Prologue

Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman  
  
Survival of the Fittest  
  
A/N: This story takes place after "Shades of Gray", in 1883. However, Brian is not dead.  
  
Disclaimer- I don' t own DQMW in anyway….  
***  
  
Prologue  
  
  
  
"Michaela, do you really want to do this?" Sully questioned his wife.  
  
"I promised myself I'd get to the top. I think now is a good time to try again." she laced her hands through his as they sat on their porch steps looking up at the distant stars.  
  
"What about Seana and Katie?" he asked. "Are you going up there alone?"  
  
"I think their father can manage alone. I've asked Colleen, Sarah, and Katrina…."  
***  
"Climbing Pike's Peak, Katrina? Luke's barley one." Matthew argued.  
  
"I've been staying home with no one to talk to, but Luke. You know I love you two, and your firm leaves you very busy, but I want to do this. I need a change of pace, a change of scenery. " Matthew leaned over and kissed his wife on the lips. After years of living with Dr. Mike he knew better then to try and keep Katrina from what she wanted to do. Katrina's heart busted with energy. She couldn't wait to go, to be doing something different. She leaned over and kissed Matthew back.  
***  
Two days later, Michaela, Colleen, Katrina, and Sarah headed for Pike's Peak, leaving behind four men to fend for themselves.  
  
***  
a/n that's it for now, more to come soon…..  
  



	2. Chapter One Andrew

Survival of the fittest  
A/N: I am currently looking for information on Colorado Springs in the 1880's to make this story historically correct. So be aware that not everything is accurate.  
Chapter One- Andrew  
  
"Becky put that down!" Andrew replied as he brushed a strand of hair away from his face. Colleen had only been gone for a day and already the kids were getting under his hair. Besides he had dozens of patient's charts to go through. He smiled to himself remembering the clinic and the hospital it had turned into. Colorado Springs was no longer the tiny town it had once been either; now it was rapidly on it's way to becoming a vibrant city. Alive with stores and hotels. People buzzing in the streets. It was enough to rival that of Boston. He wished Colleen's grandmother , Mrs. Quinn, could have been alive to see what the "savage frontier" grow into.  
  
"Pa." Jonas warned just before, glass shattered in the living room.  
  
"Becky!" Andrew yelled.  
  
The five year- old was nothing like her quiet mother. Rebecca Cook was nothing like anyone her family really. She was constantly getting in and out of trouble , while her twin sat patiently in the background. Rebecca did however, look a lot like her mother and her two and a half year old sister Emily. Jonas on the other hand, looked amazingly like Brian and he and Emily both shared the same personality that won friends and strangers alike.   
  
"See pa?" Becky exclaimed with a wide grin as if Colleen's hand painted vase from France didn't matter.  
  
He couldn't help but smile back. "Alright, I think it's time I take the two of you to the schoolhouse."  
  
The schoolhouse had also changed dramatically. The town council had agreed to rebuilt and move it a few miles outside the town in order to accommodate the growing number of children.   
  
"Do we have to Papa?" She said.  
  
"Don't you want to see Miss. Teresa?"   
  
"Alright." Andrew smiled at her and kissed Becky on her forehead. He bent to pick up Emily and motioned Jonas to follow.   
  
Andrew missed Colleen and hoped that she, Michaela, Sarah, and Katrina, were okay. But, as the father and children left their homestead they couldn't have fathomed what the upcoming days would bring. 


	3. Chapter Two Sully and Snow

Chapter Three  
Sully  
  
  
"I wish Ma had taken me along." Katherine Sully grumbled.  
  
"I told ya before Kates, you're Ma and I decided that you are too young to climb Pike's Peak."  
  
" I'm thirteen Papa," she folded arms stubbornly across her chests. "I let Brian, Colleen and Matthew got to do lots of things when they were my age."  
  
"Of course they did. We're all just being unfair for no reason." Sully joked.  
"That's not funny." Katie replied looking even more angry.  
  
Sully could so nothing but shake his head. As she grew older Katie had become more and more like Michaela with every passing day. His mind then thought of Hannah and he wondered, had she lived, what she would have been like. Three year old Seana was even more fussy than her older sister, shaking her hear profusely as Sully attempted to feed her. "Come on Seana, don't you want some?"   
  
"Pa she doesn't like oatmeal." Katie pointed out happy to prove just how "responsible" she was.  
  
"You're right." Work had kept him extremely busy the last few weeks. Late hours and never home in time to play with the children.  
  
"I could make something." Katie offered. Sully looked skeptical. Katie cooked just as well as Michaela had in her first days in Colorado Springs, but then again she looked to eager to try. "Alright, Miss Katie, you try." he said kissing her on her forehead.  
  
"Thanks Pa."  
  
"Your welcome." he said as he sat back in his chair and propped his feet on the table. "This gives me time to relax."  
  
Katie giggled in response from the range.  
"So I talked to Cloud Dancin' yesterday. He wanted me to ask you if ya wanted to go trappin' with his this this weekend."  
  
"I'd like that." Katie exclaimed, her eyes bright with excitement. She loved the outdoor wilderness that her Pa and Cloud Dancing cherish so much. Not much of it was left though as the pioneer days were slowly coming to an end. Soon Colorado Springs would be a city and she feared that when that happened a part of her father would die.  
  
"Maybe Sam can come with ya." Sully suggested.  
  
"No, Mr. Bing doesn't like Sam to do "unladylike things" and Natalie has to help Miss Grace at the restaurant."  
  
"Well I guess it's just you and Cloud Dancing."  
  
"Yup." Katie replied , finishing breakfast. "Try it Pa."  
Sully looked at his daughter and lifted the fork to his mouth, "It's great," he lied resisting the urge to spit it out, she certainly was her mother's child.  
  
"You don't like it." she frowned.  
  
"No, I do-" Sully started.  
  
"More, more." Seana spoke clapping her hands together.  
  
"See she knows good cooking."  
  
Sully laughed and looked at his little girl. "What am I going to do with you."  
"Come on you, it's time to get dressed." Katie said and lifted Seana out of her seat.  
  
"Pa!" Katie called minutes later.  
"Oh boy." Sully sighed as he climbed up the stairs. "What's wrong?"  
  
"She won't put on the dress."  
  
"Ana," using a nickname, "Put on the dress for your sister has for you."  
The child shook her head in defiance. "No dress."  
  
"Okay how about another one?"  
  
"No dress." she crossed her chubby little hands across her chest. "No dress."  
Sully sighed again. "Micheala."  
  
* * *  
  
Snow  
  
  
"Morning Sully." Andrew Cook said as he made his way into work.   
  
"Mornin' Andrew" Sully replied. With the streets getting so crowded the two could barely see each other through the maze of horses, people and carriages. Andrew smiled back and pointed to Grace's Café signaling that the two would meet for lunch. He planned to invite Brian and Matthew as well knowing that they missed their respective mates as much as he missed Colleen. Sully nodded back and the two continued on their way. Andrew walked through the hospital door with Emily on his hip. He greeted the receptionist and smiled to himself it looked like wasn't going to be a busy day. Or so he thought.  
  
Cloud Dancing looked up to the sky and muttered to his wife, "Look like snow."  
  
Dorothy looked up from her printing press skeptically. "This winter's been pretty mild and it's already April. I think the time for snow has passed."  
  
"Then explained the snowflakes falling from the sky." he put in slyly.  
  
"What?" she replied jumping up from her seat and went to the window. Sure enough there was snow falling. "Well, I'll be."   
  
"It seems as if the snow is falling heavily." Cloud Dancing said coming up behind her and putting an arm around Dorothy.  
  
"Yup. Looks like we're in for a blizzard after all." she responded. She still couldn't believe that she was married to this wonderful man. A man who she might of hated not to many years ago. This marriage was much happier then her first one had been. She turned to the window again.   
  
  
  
a/n: Yes it is a short chapter but I'm setting the stage for the next and hopefully final chapter which will be completed hopefully sometime before my holiday break ends. Hope you like it! 


	4. Recap

Recap: I noticed some people have been reviewing saying that they were confused about some of the characters and the plot. This story is the sequel to another one of my stories "Shades of Gray". In that story Brian dies of yellow fever. However, in "Survival of the Fittest" I decided not to have Brian be dead. I also added some characters in "Shades of Gray" they are:  
  
Katrina: Matthew's young Irish bride. She came to American in 1878. They have a son Luke who is one.  
  
Natalie Antonia: Grace and Robert E's 10 yr old daughter. (Grace was pregnant with her in the last episode)  
  
Samantha Bing: We know of her but in my story Myra died and she's living with Horace, she's 14 yrs old  
  
Seana Sully: Dr. Mike's and Sully's daughter she's 3 (I created her she is not in the series)  
  
  
Susannah: Rev. Johnson's wife with 6 kids. She is a good friend of Dr. Mike's and she came over for Alabama in the 1846 on the Oregon Trail and then moved from Oregon to CS when her husband left her.   
Susannah and Rev'd 's children are:  
Paige-11 yrs old  
Christopher and Mary Ellen- 7  
Joshua-9  
Harriet-5  
  
Rebecca (Becky) & Jonas Cook: Andrew and Colleen's twins (5 yrs old) (I created them they are not in the series)  
  
Emily Cook: Andrew and Colleen's daughter (2 yrs old) (I created her ,she is not in the series)  
  
  
  
Cloud Dancing and Dorothy are married: again not in series I created their union  
  
Nicholas Slicker: Jake and Teresa 's (5) yr old sickly son (I created him not in series)  
  
Sarah and Brian are married 


End file.
